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Feb. 8, 2013
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Jewish World Review
Nov 13, 2011
/ 16 Mar-Cheshvan, 5772
Military Scandal, Media Blackout
By
Arnold Ahlert
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Let me preface the facts of this column with two disclosures: first, I have a deep and abiding respect for the United States military. With rare exception these people are and have been some of the finest Americans who have ever lived. Currently, they are asked to put their lives on the line even as they are constrained by absurdities such as the Rules of Engagement, pipe dream counter-insurgency tactics known as "winning hearts and minds," and the political machinations of an administration more than willing to use them as pawns in a bid for re-election. Second, I have equal amounts of contempt for a mainstream media, which is neither mainstream, nor remotely interested in reporting the truth, if it interferes with their agenda.
Here are the facts: on November 10th, a United States military court convicted Sgt. Calvin Gibbs, 26, for his participation in a "kill team" which deliberately targeted and subsequently murdered three Afghan civilians. Three co-defendants had previously pleaded guilty, and two testified against him.
One was Specialist Adam Winfield, who had alerted his parents after the first murder, telling them more were planned. Winfield's father reportedly alerted authorities, but nothing came of it. Winfield pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the third killing after testifying at a previous hearing that he thought Gibbs would kill him if he did not take part on the atrocity. Windfield received a reduced sentence. The second man was Spc, Jeremy Morlock, who is currently serving 24 years for his part in the crime. He testified that Gibbs killed two of his victims with grenades and planted an AK-47 near a third victim in order to make it seem like the victim had been armed.
Gibbs kept fingers of his victims as trophies, claiming that he was "disassociated" during combat, further maintaining that the idea was "like keeping the antlers off a deer you'd shoot." The soldiers posed for pictures of themselves with their victims, all of whom were killed during routine patrols of Afghanistan's Kandahar province in 2010.
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Ironically, the murders were discovered as an incidental part of a wider investigation into the 5th Stryker Brigade, deemed "out of control" by the prosecutor, for taking part in smoking hash, photographing the remains of dead Afghans and beating the soldier who reported the drug use. A total of 12 soldiers were charged in the case, including five for the murders, and seven others for less serious but related offenses. All but two have been convicted, with most of the perpetrators agreeing to deals obtained through plea bargaining.
In the Gibbs case, a five-man jury deliberated for four hours and convicted him of three counts of premeditated murder and 12 other convictions associated with the crimes. He faces life in prison, but could be paroled in as little as nine years.
Those are the facts and I'd bet my life if I asked a hundred Americans about any of it, 99 of them wouldn't know what the heck I was talking about. On the other hand, I'd make the same wager that if you asked a hundred Americans if they'd ever heard of something called the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, most of them would know what I'm talking about.
In fact, unless you were living under a rock at the time, you almost couldn't help but know about it, considering the media feeding frenzy which accompanied it. Abu Ghraib happened in 2004. If you type the words "Abu Ghraib" into your Google search engine you'll see stories as late at 2009 on the first page of results, including two Wikipedia entries noting the history of the scandal.
Now type in "Afghan kill team." Note anything peculiar? With the exception of the Christian Science Monitor in the fifth slot, not one other major American media outlet is listed as having reported the story. And with all due respect to the CSM, one could make a reasonable argument that they are exactly in the same weight class as the NY Times, Washington Post or CBS, NBC, ABC or Fox. Apparently you need to "cross the pond" to get the dope from the British and other press outlets on an American scandal. A major American scandal.
Why?
Because a military scandal which occurred on the watch of the current president, as opposed to the previous president, doesn't accrue to the interests of the current president, or a media bound and determined to see him re-elected. It doesn't accrue to the interests of the more than a few journalists who did their best to link the Abu Ghraib scandal directly to George W. Bush, even as Barack Obama remains studiously dare I say calculatingly detached from something far more serious.
But don't take my word for it. Pop the words "Bush responsible for Abu Ghraib" into Google, followed by "Obama responsible for Afghan kill team" and see what you think of the difference in coverage and the tone of that coverage.
I opened this column by noting my admiration for the military, and if you think it gives me any pleasure to report a story like this, let me assure you it doesn't. But someone has to, and real indictment here is that you're getting news of this from an opinion columnist. Those tasked with reporting news don't appear to be up to the job, or the level of "let the chips fall where they may" integrity that's supposed to accompany it which is why I also noted my contempt for the media in the opening paragraph as well.
The difference between the mainstream media and the military? The military will eventually re-earn its integrity.
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Previously:
11/09/11: Open-Mics and Closed Minds
11/07/11: Back in the EU--SSR
10/31/11: Camping Out in La-La Land
10/14/11: Bagman Tim
10/13/11: Are Colleges Too Big to Fail?
10/11/11: Why aren't they upset when their child is mugged in school?
10/07/11: I Stand With the One Percenters
10/03/11: Can We Legalize Assassination?
09/29/11: Tim, Liz and Bev Equals Moe Larry and Curly
09/26/11: No Acknowledgment of Israel? No More Money
09/19/11: Jobbing America
09/16/11: Carville knows a few things about crazy
09/12/11: Contemptible Krugman
09/09/11: Solving the 9/11 Invitation Controversy
09/06/11: Our Progressive Economic Wrecking Crew
09/01/11: Summer Swoon
08/29/11: The Real American Fanatics
08/24/11:The Five Stages of (Progressive) Grief
08/22/11:The Inevitable Descent From Progressivism to Nihilism
08/22/11: Perry Stands Firm. Obama Stands Mute
08/15/11: Give Me a Flatscreen TV, or Give Me Anarchy!
08/11/11: Resign, Mr. President
08/08/11: Facts? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Facts
08/03/11: Manufactured Crises
08/01/11: Stay Healthy, America --- or else!
07/28/11: Existential Crisis, Part 2
07/25/11: Three-Out-of-Four Americans Are Radicals
07/21/11: What Does Two Plus Two Equal?
07/18/11: News Nuggets
07/13/11: The Write Stuff
07/11/11: Completely Expectable Unexpectedness
07/07/11: Organized Cheating
07/05/11: Stimulating Disaster
06/30/11: Progressivism Masquerading as Education
06/27/11: America: Greece With Better PR
06/23/11: NBC-ya Later
06/19/11: One Man's Conversation About Race
06/10/11: An Exhibitionist in an Exhibitionist Age
06/07/11: NAACP Betrays Black American Schoolchildren
06/02/11: For the First Time in My Adult Life . . .
05/31/11: If I Were President
05/25/11: California Dreamin'
05/23/11: On Wisconsin!
05/20/11: Obama's Farewell to Israel Speech
05/16/11: Krauthammering Amnesty
05/11/11: Bounce, My Backside
05/09/11: The Epicenter of Progressive Contempt for the Rule of Law
05/03/11: SEALing Osama's Fate
05/02/11: The Education plantation
04/24/11: The Bell May Toll for Jersey Toll Collectors
04/19/11: From Medical Dependency to Dependency on the Welfare State
04/14/11: Trumping the Debate
04/06/11: It Takes a Bigot to Expose a Death Cult
04/04/11: Charlie and Snookie --- and Barack
03/30/11: Disabling America, One Lawsuit at a Time
03/28/11: The MSM Kills the Kill Team Story
03/23/11: Another Military Scandal
03/21/11: Barry, Joe, Helen and Wisconsin Teachers
03/16/11: The Inevitable Viability of Conservatism
03/14/11: Progressives in Their Own Words
03/09/11: $61 Billion in Cuts --- Vs. $223 Billion in One Month of Spending
03/07/11: Bean Bag B.S.
03/02/11: A Green Catastrophe in the Making
02/28/11: Ain't Noting Like the Real Thing
02/23/11: Progressive Rot vs. the ROTC
02/21/11: Wisconsin: Progressivism in All its Ugly Glory
02/18/11: News reporters --- or Narrative Shapers?
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02/14/11: Only Another 9/11 Will Alter the Illegal Immigration Status Quo
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02/03/11: Starving the World In Order to Save It
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01/27/11: Small-scale Terrorist Attacks: Big Strategy?
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01/05/11: Showdown at the Fiscal Corral
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11/29/10: We Won, Part One
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10/07/10: Hypersensitive Hogwash
10/04/10: Comprehensive Con Artists
09/29/10: Why Dems Are Going Down in November
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09/17/10: No More Lesser of Two Evils
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09/13/10: Bigots in the Majority --- Again?
09/09/10: Giving Voters Something to Vote For
09/07/10: Irresponsible Dems, Incomprehensible Bills
09/02/10: War Weary Americans vs. Implacable Islamists
08/31/10: A Dream Debased
08/25/10: American Bigots Versus Media Propagandists
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08/09/10: It's Only One Dead Nun
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08/04/10: Ground Zero Mosque: Context Counts
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04/15/10: Personal Integri-tea
04/12/10: Fools, Tools and Ghouls
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04/05/10: The Triumph of Mediocrity
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01/13/10: Airport Security Begins Away From the Airport
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11/30/09: Settled Science and Unsettled Children
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11/04/09: American Vampires and Their Political Enablers
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10/28/09: Cell Phones Cause Brain Cancer. Brain Required
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10/16/09: Cost Projections vs. Actual Costs, or Hope and Change vs. Reality
10/14/09: News you can use …
10/07/09: Incremental Insidiousness
10/05/09: MIA: Common Sense and Common Decency
09/30/09: Iran: Bad Options and Unpreparedness
09/21/09: Crying Racism: the Last Refuge of Scoundrels
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09/08/09: Truthers and Consequences
09/01/09: A Paper Trail Challenge for the Mainstream Media
08/31/09: Drowning in Amorality
08/26/09: The Republican Recovery Program
© 2011, Arnold Ahlert
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